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MMORPG.com Aion Correspondent Sebastien Klier writes this look at the economy and markets in Aion and offers tips for new players.

Ever since the early days of online games, the ability to trade virtual goods beween players has been one of the most interesting factors of MMORPGs. While some players dedicate a huge part of their time to playing the market, others prefer to spend their time more focused on actual gameplay, but even then you will need to participate in trades every once in a while. This article is going to provide an introduction to the Aion economy and give a few pointers - especially for beginners - to provide a basic understanding of it.

You will encounter a lot of money sinks in Aion, almost everything costs Kinah, the amount depending on your level and the service you want to take advantage of. If you want to bind yourself to an obelisk, or if you want to travel from one zone to the other, you will have to pay a small fee.

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Nice little article.

One thing though. That Sell All Misc button you spoke of can be helpful or harmful. It's nice to unload generic items at once, but a lot of quests are for gathering materials like angelica, and others you mentioned above. Because those items are considered generic in nature It will sell those items as well. So be careful with that.

You also mentioned selling basic grey items. While that is an option for those wanting to earn a little money fast, your other option is to buy a decon kit from a general goods vendor and break the item down. You'll get enchantment stones for deconing an item, which you can use to enchant (improve) your own gear, or sell on the market to more than cover the cost of the decon kit.

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Originally posted by necklare

Nice little article.

One thing though. That Sell All Misc button you spoke of can be helpful or harmful. It's nice to unload generic items at once, but a lot of quests are for gathering materials like angelica, and others you mentioned above. It will sell those items as well. So like I said be careful with that.

You also mentioned selling basic grey items. While that is an option for those wanting to earn money, your other option is to buy a decon tool from a general goods vendor and break the item down. You'll get enchantment stones for those, which you can use to enchant your own gear, or sell on the market to more than cover the cost of the decon tool.

Just something to keep in mind.

The Sell All Misc only effects grey items... trash loot. Stuff you can't use at all. Harvested materials like Angelica do not get sold. I don't use these materials, so during beta, I ended up with a trash load of crafting materials... so i know for a fact they don't get auto-sold.

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Originally posted by argos5

Originally posted by necklare

Nice little article.

One thing though. That Sell All Misc button you spoke of can be helpful or harmful. It's nice to unload generic items at once, but a lot of quests are for gathering materials like angelica, and others you mentioned above. It will sell those items as well. So like I said be careful with that.

You also mentioned selling basic grey items. While that is an option for those wanting to earn money, your other option is to buy a decon tool from a general goods vendor and break the item down. You'll get enchantment stones for those, which you can use to enchant your own gear, or sell on the market to more than cover the cost of the decon tool.

Just something to keep in mind.

The Sell All Misc only effects grey items... trash loot. Stuff you can't use at all. Harvested materials like Angelica do not get sold. I don't use these materials, so during beta, I ended up with a trash load of crafting materials... so i know for a fact they don't get auto-sold.

that's true, it won't sell angelica. I know because I had to manually clean out my inventory and vendored the angelica I gathered. oh sure I could have put it up for sale but it was a paltry amount and not really worth it.

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Good post there. Like i said in another post would really like to see how the markets fair after most ppl hit lvl 30 and can get Abyss items. Crafted items offer slots for mana stones am really unsure about abyss items on 1.5v will have to see. You can lvl almost any craft with just $$$ it's long but still a good way to skill up. You get items and recipes for that craft as a reward so really not all that bad. I got my armor just past 140's gaterhing was over 170's rest were under 100. Didn't cost alot of $$$ but very slow.

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Thanks for correcting me. Angelica does not get sold, but other harvested items like Jute, and Oranges will sell. Again these are items you have to harvest for some quests. I just wanted to point out, to be extra careful with that button, it can and often time will sell something you really didn't want to get rid of.

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Originally posted by necklare

Thanks for correcting me. Angelica does not get sold, but other harvested items like Jute, and Oranges will sell. Again these are items you have to harvest for some quests. I just wanted to point out, to be extra careful with that button, it can and often time will sell something you really didn't want to get rid of.

Well, regardless of what sells, you bring up an excellent point. I had the same thought after I sold some misc stuff... essentially "wait, what did I just sell".

so people should just be mindful of what goes there. for instance, there are some lepharist badges that are collected for a quest but they will sell.

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Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by necklare

Thanks for correcting me. Angelica does not get sold, but other harvested items like Jute, and Oranges will sell. Again these are items you have to harvest for some quests. I just wanted to point out, to be extra careful with that button, it can and often time will sell something you really didn't want to get rid of.

Well, regardless of what sells, you bring up an excellent point. I had the same thought after I sold some misc stuff... essentially "wait, what did I just sell".

so people should just be mindful of what goes there. for instance, there are some lepharist badges that are collected for a quest but they will sell.

Do make a mental note about those, because they aren't used till later and 95% of people just vendor them manually and regret it later.

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Originally posted by necklare

Thanks for correcting me. Angelica does not get sold, but other harvested items like Jute, and Oranges will sell. Again these are items you have to harvest for some quests. I just wanted to point out, to be extra careful with that button, it can and often time will sell something you really didn't want to get rid of.

No gathered materials get sold, period. Sell misc only sells GREY items. If an item has an use, it is white, if it is a quest item it is also white.

There's the lepharist insignia that is the only exception that comes on my mind, a grey trash item that has a related quest.

Anyway, it shouldn't hurt to check what the sell all misc has placed into the sell interface for you.

By the way, a hint for higher levels is DO NOT SELL SOULBOUND ITEMS on the NPC when you have replaced them with a better equipment. You can actually use an extraction tool (sold on most general goods vendors) on these equipments (only those that have manastone sockets, the others can't be extracted, so these will need to be sold to the NPC) and get one or more enchantment stones which you can use or sell at the broker. Do some research first, to check if their current pricing is above or below NPC price for the equipment before you break for extraction.

Even coins from coin quests can be sold on the broker, btw, so it might be more profitable to sell them on the broker rather than trade it for an equipment that will not be useful for other classes, limiting your market for these.

Another tip is that if you find an item to be way too cheap when you wish to place it in the Broker, check the NPC price. Yeah, I've had a profit selling rings that were placed for a price below NPC price (lol), they were for like 1k on the broker while the NPC paid 2.5k for them, got around a 10k profit when "cleaning" the underpriced rings.

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These asian games with the set up shops anywhere mentality make me wince. I just hate when they do that, all it does is create a lag fest on the main streets of the towns. It would be so easy to set up a market area and only allow shops in those areas. Of course a simple solution like that is beyond the intelligence of the typical developer, NCSoft's included.

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Originally posted by Ozmodan

These asian games with the set up shops anywhere mentality make me wince. I just hate when they do that, all it does is create a lag fest on the main streets of the towns. It would be so easy to set up a market area and only allow shops in those areas. Of course a simple solution like that is beyond the intelligence of the typical developer, NCSoft's included.

Obviously you have no bothered to even play the game before making such statement. Aion does not lag even if there is hundreds of people sitting with their shops in the same spot, so your "problem" is already solved.

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Originally posted by Richijefe

Originally posted by Ozmodan

These asian games with the set up shops anywhere mentality make me wince. I just hate when they do that, all it does is create a lag fest on the main streets of the towns. It would be so easy to set up a market area and only allow shops in those areas. Of course a simple solution like that is beyond the intelligence of the typical developer, NCSoft's included.

Obviously you have no bothered to even play the game before making such statement. Aion does not lag even if there is hundreds of people sitting with their shops in the same spot, so your "problem" is already solved.

I agree. I've been in the popular shop areas when there were easily 50 shopkeepers sitting around. There was no problem with performance.

That said, anyone who sets up shop where there are already more than three or four present is a total idiot. Once more than a few players have set up, nobody bothers to even read your store message anymore to say nothing of actually looking at your wares. You're much better off choosing a quest hub of the same level as the stuff you're selling. You'll have fewer players come by, but they'll be much more likely to actually want what you have and also more likely to stop and look.

Another tip: Don't be vague in your shop message. You don't have all that many characters to work with, but "Miscellaneous stuff, cheap" gets much worse results than, "Lvl 7 greens and whites, 50% of default price" or, "Lvl 9 Greens: spellbook, swords, and chain chest". By being specific about what you're selling, you're pre-qualifying your customers. People know they won't be wasting their time by checking your shop, and so will be much more likely to do so.

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Originally posted by Richijefe

Originally posted by Ozmodan

These asian games with the set up shops anywhere mentality make me wince. I just hate when they do that, all it does is create a lag fest on the main streets of the towns. It would be so easy to set up a market area and only allow shops in those areas. Of course a simple solution like that is beyond the intelligence of the typical developer, NCSoft's included.

Obviously you have no bothered to even play the game before making such statement. Aion does not lag even if there is hundreds of people sitting with their shops in the same spot, so your "problem" is already solved.

Well gee, I apologize for not having a supercomputer as a gaming machine. It most certainly lags when I am in a major city and always around major shop keeping areas. Sometimes I wonder about the ability of some of these posters to actually think before they write!

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"You can register up to ten items, for a duration of eight days"

I haven't played but am extremely interested in this game. So, after reading the article I have to ask; is the above quote correct? I'm only going to be allowed to post 10 items at any one time in the auction hall? That seems incredibly low. I would think far more than that will be necessary, maybe even unlimited; you know like other MMO auction halls. Just a thought, please enlighten me.

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ok so beta markets, the perosnal ones are rely bad..inflated and wrong...maybe the beta but people charge at least 5x-10x of what its worth if u sell to the merchant....i mean if u buy sword X why sell it for 2x the price......i understand overpricing of good gear but common they overprice EVRYTHING like the mana stones...wtf they drop quite alot its worthless to buy them off people (unless its not a common one obviosly) just saying market stalls rearly offer anythign good unless ure in a rush or lazy or just stupid.

this is beta so this is obviosly will chage as players just dotn care now sicne thye will wipe....anyways this game will sell but it wotn kill wow....it seems like people are gana play this untill the next " wow killer mmos" come out and yes by "wow killers : i mean any decent mmo that commes out in 2010 hehe

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Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by Richijefe

Originally posted by Ozmodan

These asian games with the set up shops anywhere mentality make me wince. I just hate when they do that, all it does is create a lag fest on the main streets of the towns. It would be so easy to set up a market area and only allow shops in those areas. Of course a simple solution like that is beyond the intelligence of the typical developer, NCSoft's included.

Obviously you have no bothered to even play the game before making such statement. Aion does not lag even if there is hundreds of people sitting with their shops in the same spot, so your "problem" is already solved.

Well gee, I apologize for not having a supercomputer as a gaming machine. It most certainly lags when I am in a major city and always around major shop keeping areas. Sometimes I wonder about the ability of some of these posters to actually think before they write!

One handy tip for you: If you do get in a situation that's lagging you out due to population, simply change the instance. There are ten channels for each zone. You can go to the Support button to find an option for changing channels. Low channels have high populations because the engine fills them first. High channels tend to be empty except for the occasional loner.

It takes ten seconds to change to the new instance and then... lag gone!

Personally, I play in the higher channels because it's less competition for objectives and resources. But I switch to channel 1 any time I want to set up shop (or see what shops are around) because I know that's where I'll find the most buyers and sellers.

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One handy tip for you: If you do get in a situation that's lagging you out due to population, simply change the instance. There are ten channels for each zone. You can go to the Support button to find an option for changing channels. Low channels have high populations because the engine fills them first. High channels tend to be empty except for the occasional loner.

It takes ten seconds to change to the new instance and then... lag gone!

Personally, I play in the higher channels because it's less competition for objectives and resources. But I switch to channel 1 any time I want to set up shop (or see what shops are around) because I know that's where I'll find the most buyers and sellers.

It is a nice reminder that there are more channels, you easily forget about it once you are ingame. I'll keep that in mind for next weekend, because my PC isn't that strong either! Thx! :)